“A positive attitude may not get what you want, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.”—Anonymous

When one is out of work, looking for a job becomes a full-time job in itself. The difference here is that you are working 24-7 and there is no end in sight. With each passing day the constant drumbeat of bad news, no matter where you turn, can exacerbate this feeling of doom in a spiraling economy. This feeling of growing hopelessness can spill into your mood that will follow you wherever you go; much like the perfume you wear. You can no longer smell it, but others can!

The inescapable feeling of doom can interfere with your own welfare. How?

When you are down about what is happening to you and to those around you, your brain releases chemicals that interfere with your clear thinking and puts you in a less-than optimum functioning state. You become more irritable, short tempered, and less capable of fully deploying your faculties. The anxiety around the uncertainty consumes you in ways that shows in how you come across to others (not your immediate family members and friends because they get used to seeing you this way, day-in and day-out).

This will not serve you in a well-orchestrated job search. So, what must you do? Here are some tips that work:

1. Have a daily routine and stick to it. Lack of structure (when you’re out of a job) can be a major cause of undisciplined activities that cause much wasted effort and it causes negative feelings
2. Exercise every day. Physical exercise at a set time each day for about half hour can help you stay in shape and the endorphins released in the process can detoxify your body of any “negative” chemicals stemming from your feeling down about your situation.
3. Stay in touch with positive people and stay AWAY from whiners. Find something positive each day in what happens to you and relish it. Being positive is a virtuous cycle and helps keep you in a positive spirit.
4. Consolidate all activities that require emotional stamina and a strong “immune system.” These activities are typically cold calling, following –up on sent responses, new introductions, and asking for referrals. If you spread these throughout your day then it is difficult to stay away from negative experiences inevitable form such encounters throughout the day, too. Conducting these activities in a single block of time, when you are at the peak of your energy and spirits it will help you cope with everything else, once you put this behind you.
5. Find out what lifts your spirits and energizes you and have “it” at least once a day or whenever you need it.
6. When something positive happens (an interview call) celebrate the victory and treat yourself (a walk, or a TV show, or whatever energizes you; just not sweets and eating!)
7. Write a recommendation or a note of appreciation to someone who has done you good. This is an empowering experience when you yourself feel powerless
8. Visualize the dream job you are pursuing and translate that visualization into actions that will take you there. The brain does not know the difference between the actual reality and the imagined one!
9. Stay away from influences that do not reaffirm you and what you stand for. Use positive words to communicate message; avoid negative words at all costs
10. Smile more, be confident and look powerful. This alone will do you more good than you can imagine in getting what you are looking for by attracting you to it.

Being out of work in a deteriorating economy is no picnic! But, you can make it so by merely changing how you experience it!

Good luck!

In today’s job market employers are playing it safe by on-boarding employees on a temporary basis (“temping”) with the hope of keeping a flexible workforce. This accordion model of employee workforce gives them the flexibility and saves the added burden of having to pay the benefits owed a full-time (there are no permanent jobs anymore!) counterpart. Employees in such cases have to suffer the added uncertainty, carry the burden of paying their own medical and other costs, and often subject themselves to being treated as second-class citizens (rare invitations to office parties). Over time, this can be demoralizing.

You can protect yourself with some strategic actions so that your chances of moving from a temporary to full-time position are promising. The following suggestions are worth some thought and effort:

1. Before applying for a position or as early in the process as possible find out if the offered position is project-based or is an ongoing functional task. Avoid getting too excited about a short-term, project-based assignment. Keep looking.
2. Find out during the interview process if the position was eliminated or is a newly identified position that the company wants to test out. If it is the latter then your chances of moving yourself to a permanent position are brighter. If it’s the former, you just have to try harder to get yourself that full-time offer later on when you establish your credentials.
3. During the interview ask the hiring manager if they intend to make the position a full-time job and under what circumstances. Carefully make a mental note of the conditions for that conversion.
4. Upon on-boarding assess the full scope of the job first-hand. Job descriptions are often based on perceptions and stale job postings from the bygone era. You can pretty much fashion the job (upwards) based on your drive, skills, and interest.
5. Once ensconced in the job, meet with your manager and identify what needs to happen to make your manager look better to their boss. Hammer out a plan so that you can go above and beyond what was originally expected from your performance. Also remember the discussion during #3 above.
6. As you uncover opportunities that you can exploit and that can improve things at work, write a letter to the manager spelling out what you see and how you intend to make things better. This is over and above your daily assignments and what your manager expects from you. Make it all look easy and do not burn the midnight oil doing all this. Do not complain, do not explain.
7. As you get settled in your “temp” job continue looking for other opportunities and do not slack off on your campaign that got you this job. Carefully select those employers that may offer you a comparable or better position. This is your leverage. Now that you have a paying job you can be more selective even in applying for such jobs.
8. In about 90 days after you come on board review with the manager your progress and suggest that you are very interested in a full-time position and that you enjoy working for them. If your ongoing pursuits have resulted in another job, especially a full-time job (even if it is just a “C” job, they don’t have to know that), you can leverage that advantage into getting yourself a full-time job offer (hopefully you are already in an “A” job, except for your status).
9. If the manager does not entertain the idea, politely suggest that you already have another offer (even though it may be yet another temp job) with better prospects for a full-time job (they do not have to know all the details).
10. Continue doing a great job and keep the manager in the loop with all your achievements.

If you do this right you should be able to become a full-time employee in about six months.

Be honest, be authentic, and be forthright. Don’t play any games.

Good luck!